Bank Of Japan Rate Decision On Tap For Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan will on Tuesday wrap up its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

The central bank is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate negative and unchanged at -0.1 percent, although some kind of additional stimulus may be introduced.

Japan also will see November numbers for department store sales; in October, nationwide sales fell 3.9 percent on year, while Tokyo-area sales lost 4.4 percent.

The Reserve Bank of Australia will release the minutes from its monetary policy meeting on December 6, At the meeting, the bank decided to hold its benchmark lending rate steady at the record low of 1.50 percent.

Hong Kong will provide November numbers for inflation and Q3 data for current account. In October, consumer prices were up 1.2 percent on year, while the current account surplus in Q2 was 14.94 billion HKD.